Fostering Understanding of Turkish American Issues through Public Education

On February 28, TCA and the Turkish Heritage Organization (THO) hosted an art exhibition and reception on Capitol Hill featuring the profiles of Ahmet Ertegun and James Baldwin, and eleven paintings by Hulis Mavruk in honor of African American History Month. In attendance were Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC/5th), congressional staff, representatives from foreign embassies, and members of the African American and Turkish American communities.

The Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) President G. Lincoln McCurdy cordially invites you to an art exhibition and reception on February 28, 2018 on Capitol Hill, featuring the profiles of James Baldwin and Ahmet Ertegun and the works of Hulis Mavruk.

The Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) is deeply saddened by the passing of Ambassador Nabi Sensoy who was Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States between 2006-2009. Ambassador Sensoy had an impressive career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). In addition to high-ranking positions with MFA in Ankara, he served as the Ambassador to Russia (1998-2002) and Ambassador to Spain (1990-95). He was also Chief of Staff to President Turgut Ozal (1988-90), Consul General in London (1985-88), and Counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. (1980-83). Ambassador Sensoy was a graduate of the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University.

On January 20, Turkish forces launched “Operation Olive Branch” into a corner of northwestern Syria adjoining two heavily populated Turkish provinces. Among the chief goals of the Afrin operation is to root out the Kurdish militia, affiliated with the PKK, which both the US and Turkey list as a terrorist organization. Both share a reverence for now-imprisoned PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan and its military structure and leadership is indistinguishable. Despite acknowledgment of this by some parts of the US administration, the US nevertheless views the YPG/PKK as an effective fighting force against ISIL. For years, Turkish officials tried to convey to the US that enlisting one terrorist group to fight another is a dangerous strategy, especially when the former group seeks the territorial dismemberment of Turkey, a NATO ally, and is responsible for the deaths of civilians and NATO soldiers. The Obama administration has ignored these warnings, while the Trump administration, regrettably, has responded with mixed messages and an insufficient regard for Turkey’ security.

On January 27, 1973, Turkish Consul General to Los Angeles Mehmet Baydar and Vice Consul Bahadir Demir were murdered by Armenian terrorist Gourgen Yanikian at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara. Yanikian was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. On October 26, 1973, a group calling itself, “The Yanikian Commandos” planted a bomb outside the Turkish Information Office in New York and demand the release of Yanikian. On October 4, 1977, Armenian terrorists bombed the home of Professor Stanford Shaw, a renowned Jewish American scholar of Ottoman history at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).